1. Field
Aspects of embodiments of the present invention relate to a battery management system and a driving method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Vehicles (e.g., cars) with a combustion engine, which uses gasoline or diesel as main fuel, generate serious pollution such as air pollution. Accordingly, an electric car or a hybrid car has been developed for reducing the generation of pollution.
The electric car is powered by an electric engine (or motor) that is driven by an electric energy outputted from a battery. Such an electric car includes a battery, in which a plurality of dischargeable/chargeable (i.e., rechargeable) battery cells are included in one pack, as a main power source. Therefore, the electric car does not generate an exhaust gas and produces lower noise.
The hybrid car is one that is in between a car using only a combustion engine and the electric car, and is one using two or more kinds of power sources, for example, a combustion engine and an electric motor. The hybrid car may be powered by a combustion engine and a fuel cell which directly obtains an electric energy by a chemical reaction between continuously supplied oxygen and hydrogen, or may be powered by a battery and a fuel cell.
In this way, since a car powered by an electric energy is directly affected by the performance of a battery cell, a Battery Management System (BMS) is provided to measure the voltage and current of each battery cell and the total voltages and currents of all battery cells to efficiently manage the discharge/charge of each battery cell, and detect a battery cell having decreased performance among the battery cells such that each battery cell may have maximum or increased performance.